Over 100 Gen Apha kids are set to one day become overnight millionaires—and they may not even know it.
That means his at least 106 children could each earn around $132 million for being related to the Russian-born entrepreneur. But they’ll have to wait a long time before inheriting that fortune.
“I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of thirty years has elapsed, starting from today,” Durov continued. “I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account.”
“Identity verification is reasonably straightforward. Paternity tests can confirm that Pavel is the father,” says Khaled Kteily, CEO of Give Legacy. “Anyone who believes that Pavel is their biological father could submit a sample to verify. Depending on each country’s laws as well as relationships with the birth mother, the child could already be made aware.”
Russian-born Durov founded Telegram in 2013—a messaging app divorced from government-requested censorship. But he had to flee his home country in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on another popular communications platform he had founded, VKontakte. Once he left, he invested all his energy into building up Telegram.
While boundless free speech can allow diverse political and social opinions to thrive, a lack of moderation on the platform has led to some serious issues.
In August of 2024, the Telegram founder and CEO was placed under formal investigation in France. It was alleged that he was complicit in running a platform that enabled an organized gang to perform illicit transactions. Durov was also accused by French prosecutors of complicity in the organized distribution of sexual images of children on Telegram.
Fortune reached out to Telegram for comment.
